A FREEMIUM EXPOSÉ
Archive for the ‘Social Networking’ Category
BBC 6 (Music) Of The Best
February 13, 2012Anyone who actually reads the irrelevant dross published on this website might be aware that a character who only semi-pretentiously named himself as The Main Protagonist – well, aren’t we all the main protagonist in the story of our own lives? – has a chance of being conscious of his, or, er, my love for radio, music and in particular the best radio station on the planet: BBC Radio 6 Music.
And 6 Music is ten years old. I only started listening to 6 in 2003, when my employer (coincidentally the BBC) happened to permit me to listen to it whilst working.
I had neither a DAB radio of my own, nor broadband internet. It was a different era. It was like the 1950s of the Internet compared to now. Social media hadn’t been invented. There was no Facebook or Twitter.
As a recent graduate of an arts-based degree I wasn’t hugely employable, so whilst I was working at the BBC, it was in the highly confidential and sensitive “Scanning Room”, document managing high profile employee paperwork and seeing all sorts of naughtiness.
My favourite memory perhaps being the opportunity to read about a disciplinary for one member of staff who’d been having an affair with another and doing all sorts of sneaky, saucy, kinky devilry whilst in the office/studio. Names are forgotten so the Data Protection Act is null and void in writing this. I think. I hope.
I’d always adored music and had been rather fond of radio for years. I loved John Peel’s shows. I never knew I’d get the chance to hear an entire radio station inspired by his ethos of openness, going mostly against the grain of commerciality.
Vic McGlynn‘s afternoon show was a revelation. Hearing Daft Punk Is Playing In My House for the first time was a glimpse into genius. An indie punk rock band playing dance music about a dance band playing at their house. Which also SOUNDS as if it’s a live band playing Daft Punk.
Unfortunately a lot of our time working in our jobs at the BBC was spent “on standby” as opposed to doing actual “stuff”, so we were told to listen to the radio and watch telly and generally chat to kill time. We weren’t allowed out of the Scanning Room. We were guards of the dark information, in a dark place. No windows. Literally no windows.
As for us BBC scanners – myself, Vanessa and Bonnie (later of Electricity In Our Homes infamy) – we became fast friends before the management realised how much money they could save by selling off the entire HR dept to a third party, albeit a third party which would run it really quite terribly (Capita, aka BBC HR Direct), and thus give the management lovely big bonuses to buy big houses in Holland Park and Notting Hill.
6 Music is very much a part of this writer’s present, and remains one aspect of the BBC he adores. And so he felt compelled to respond to this challenge:
As part of 6 Music’s Birthday celebrations we want to hear 6 Of The Best from you.
Just select six songs that most represent 6 Music to you by filling out the form below.
You’ll be able to hear a different listeners’ selection each week on the Liz Kershaw show on Saturdays, 13:00-16:00. We’ll also be compiling a chart of all the entries that are sent in.
I’ve replied. I bit on the bait. Here’s my first of the 6:
Guillemots – Made Up Love Song #43
The wife and I played this at our wedding for the first dance. Our Auntie Pam in a broad Manchester accent is on video yelling, “WHAT THE BLOOMIN’ HECK IS THIS?” in response to the wonky Hammond intro to which my newlywed wife and I did a close dance. We pulled some delightful dancey twirls out of the bag in the song’s climactic second part, much to the surprised cheers of onlookers who hitherto had only ever seen me raving sketchily in muddy fields.
Can you resist a few dancey twirls, dear reader?
Sonic Astronic
January 25, 2012If you’re available in London this Saturday, 28th January, 2012, the Main Protagonist has a cheeky little recommendation if you fancy a GIG:
Sonic Astronic meld electronic soundscapes and live humans.
It’s been suggested they sound like Four Tet – albeit with Mick Jagger on vocals, Hooky on bass, and with a world music percussion section.
Sonic Astronic bathe their audience in audio: shimmering guitars; delicate but intense hypnotic rhythms; a fusion of electronica, earthy beats, tremendous crescendos and tender moments.
GET HERE. LISTEN HEAR.
TOWER TAVERN – Saturday 28th January – 8pm
Very near the BT tower.
21 Clipstone Street, W1W 6BA
Warren St / Goodge St tubes
CLICK HERE TO VISIT FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE, HERE. OR HERE. TAKE CARE TO HEAR.
Lizzie Roper Interview: Part 2
December 18, 2011
Lizzie Roper sees Twitter as the dwarf in her cupboard
SUNDAY ROAST. Isn’t it delicious? We were midway through our roast dinner and it was made all the more scrumptious by the company of the highly entertaining naughty schoolgirl of Yorkshire puddings, Lizzie Roper, as we continue to discuss Sarah Beeny’s salmon mousse, fingerbanging and Twitter.
Oh Cheers: I can’t believe you put your bottom in Sarah Beeny’s flan.
Lizzie Roper: FISH MOUSSE! Get it right.
OC: I did read you once tried to encourage someone to put their arse in their birthday cake.
LR: Exactly! I’m always trying to encourage people to put their arse in their birthday cake.
OC: If only I’d’ve done that last night, with my friend’s thirtieth. But… she’s not exactly flamboyant. Bit normal and nice.
LR: It would’ve made a woman of her. It would have made her thirties.
OC: It would have made the cake special. Going back to the inspiration for the interview – your tweet that used the word “fingerbang” – can you tell us what fingerbanging is, exactly?
LR: You know what fingerbanging is!
OC: I wanna know what YOU think fingerbanging is.
LR: It’s when a gentleman gently – or viciously – inserts a finger up a lady’s loo-la.
OC: Loo-la?
LR: Yeah. Making sweet, sweet love, around about the ages of sixteen, mainly. Fingerbanging is very important when you’re a teenager.
OC: So does it stop at a certain age?
LR: No! No. No, it shouldn’t. But it moves from the main menu to the hors d’oeuvres by the time you’re thirty, doesn’t it? Whereas when you’re young that’s like WA-HEY! “Did he finger you? Did finger you? Did you get fingered?” You know it’s very important; it’s a rite of passage. I went to a private girls school, so we would have discos with private boys schools.
We’re interrupted as the pub owner comes to take plates; offer us apple crumble; take feedback on the roast dinner component of roast beetroot.
Lizzie: “The beetroot was delicious and there were heaves. Full of antioxidants.”
Pub owner: “It’s an acquired taste.“
Oh Cheers: “Didn’t like the beetroot. Another Yorkshire pudding next time, pal.”
Pub owner: “If you mention that next time then I’ll do it for you.”
LR: They’re the new owners. They’re all excited. It’s a new thing. Been open 2 weeks. Minor refurb. No dartboards. No TV sets. I like it. I like my places empty! You give me an empty dancefloor I’m a very happy girl. I don’t like crowds. I don’t like PEOPLE. F*ck people. F*ck right off.
OC: Well, don’t live in London!
LR: I AM a Londoner. I was here first. YOU piss off.
OC: Oh I see, it’s people like ME, ruining it for the rest of you. So, one of my questions was: “is this a persona?”
LR: Um…
OC: How much of this is an act?
LR: As I say, when I’m defending Twitter, I say, “Twitter is my toilet. Twitter is where the bad stuff goes.” I don’t have a partner to whom I can say, “oh for f*ck’s sake, meh meh meh meh.” I DO have this little thing in my pocket where I can go <makes gremlin noises>.
OC: How do I spell that?
LR: It’s up to you. I really like the brevity of Twitter. I like that there’s only 140 characters. What can you express in 140 characters? Can you be funny in 140 characters?
OC: The strictness, yeah, it focuses the mind. Structure and order. We need more structure and order in this country. Or do we? No we don’t.
LR: I didn’t realise how f*cking vile I am on Twitter, until –
OC: Until?
LR: Well… Twitter is the dwarf that lives in the cupboard, and I can go <makes gremlin noises>. I’m there everyday. I re-read my tweets and I see how vile I am. I’m appalled by myself. I’m not impressed. I would take myself outside and smack me. But people keep coming back. They keep wanting more. Maybe I’m Nick O’ Teen, giving the people what they don’t NEED, but what they want. I’m disgusting. I’m a very nice person, but there’s a dark side of me and that goes in there. So, is it a persona? It’s a tangent for me, I suppose.
OC: So it’s sort of just you, isn’t it?
LR: It is me.
OC: Just all the different sides.
LR: And I’m very lucky. I don’t work in a corporate world. My world is acting and voiceovers. I don’t have to be normal and good.
OC: That’s the point isn’t it? You’re not conforming.
LR: That’s my USP: I’m a bit wild and loud-mouthed and rude. And then it gets me in trouble when I go too far. Because I did think Twitter was a dwarf in the cupboard. It turned out it’s a dwarf with a megaphone, that is screaming to the whole world.
OC: And the people who follow you tend to go, “look at this everybody, isn’t it brilliant?” They retweet you, and you’re f*cked.
LR: But I love it.
OC: Good. So what did you do BEFORE Twitter?
LR: I used to have sex with men. I had boyfriends. It was brilliant.
OC: Real stuff. Who needs real stuff anymore?
LR: Real stuff. No, before Twitter… was there life before Twitter? Yeah. No. You know, we’ve gone from living in a family with one phone in the hallway, and your dad’s screaming at you – “IT’S BEFORE 6 O’ CLOCK” – to this ridiculous, over-indulged state of communication.
OC: I liked that on your email signature, it says:
Sent from my iPhone. Just like every other fanny on this bus.
OC: So on every email, it has that on the end?
LR: Yes.
OC: That’s what I notice on the train. You see so many people using phones. Tweeting. Twittering. Texting. Facebooking. Facehugging. There are idiots though who just use social networking for slanging matches. No need for that.
LR: I was told that blocking someone on Twitter is like walking away from a drunk at a party. And as soon as someone steps out of line, or is a bit weird, or is a bit boring: block, block, block, block, block. Twitter brings me so much joy, so why would I get involved in the shit side?
OC: And does it feed into your constructive creativity?
LR: I think it really does. Because I don’t do standup anymore, Twitter is a place where I can put out something that’s funny or quirky and I can see, “tee-hee-hee I’ve been retweeted!”
OC: So as a follow-up, what do you think of TWIDIOTS like us, who contact you out of the blue and say, “hey, you know what, let’s have an interview?”
LR: I love it. I’ve met other people on Twitter. There’s a brilliant guy called Newsagent Provocateur. Look up his videos. What I do find quite freaky – well, I love being flirty on the Twitter, and I am single – is that on two separate occasions I’ve been asked out by chaps for a drink. I love that they know what they’re gonna get: I don’t have to pretend I don’t know what a swearword is. But I’ve met up with these guys and I’ve discovered that they have girlfriends. So I’m like:
What did you think I was looking for? I have friends. I don’t need friends. What I need is some OTHER SORT of liaison, and I don’t think your girlfriend would appreciate you meeting up with a random girl from Twitter.
LR: My greatest Twitter conquest, when I was doing Betwixt (the musical), which I loved, but I did write a random tweet one day saying:
F*cking hell. I’m so busy I haven’t had a wank in a week.
LR: This guy replied saying, “it sounds like you need one of these.” And it was a link to a £110 vibrator on an adult sex toy site. He was the marketing director and he sent me one. 3 days later, I had a £110 vibrator in my hand. Turns out he’s the most adorable man. He’s a homosexual. There’s nothing threatening. Nothing kinky. Nothing weird. And I… got a £110 vibrator.
OC: Are you disappointed he was gay? He sounds like a nice guy.
LR: Well. I’m awful. I love the gays. I have a huge collection of gays. But we’re back to fingerbanging again.
OC: All roads lead back to fingerbanging. The most primal urge.
